One becomes two, and a bunch of other stuff happened too.

Japan has some pretty unique wildlife, and coming from Canada it is easy to be surprised, even frightened, when you encounter one for the first time. One such creature is little-mentioned on television or in books or on the internet, but it has a nasty habit of infiltrating your kitchen and eating all of your bread and peanut butter; often together in a twisted, almost sandwich-like, arrangement.

It only leaves crumbs and empty jars in its wake.

Just kidding! Kelsey has finally arrived in Sendai! About time, too. The whole "Nico and Kelsey in Japan" thing didn't seem right when half of the team was back in Canada. Pictures and videos can make you "feel like you're there", but only so much! Kelsey should really be writing about this herself, but due to jet lag she is likely fast asleep, so I will fill her shoes for now! It's officially been one week since she arrived in Japan - her flight from Toronto landed in Tokyo on the 1st, and after a second and much shorter flight to Sendai she was here! And we have been busy. It's basically round two of all that running around I did in August, except this time I am the one leading the way and I can't even speak Japanese. Luckily we are both quite skilled at using over-the-top gestures to request goods and services, and the fact that there are people here who speak English might help too.

Not having to walk up stairs puts a smile on everyone's face!

...especially considering all the walking you have to do here.

Last weekend we were kept busy, both by the aforementioned running around, but also because we had signed up to volunteer at a local festival in the city! Unfortunately we forgot to take any photos, so the images that will accompany my talk about the festival will not be exactly relevant.

Public transit in Japan.

One of these commuters is not like the others!

Every neighbourhood in Japan has local festivals, and while volunteers are probably not unwelcome I have yet to hear of one actively looking for them. The festival we volunteered at was a bit different, however. It was held in a temporary housing complex for people who had lost their homes in the natural disaster that affected the region a few months ago. It was great to see a community like that having a festival, and even better to be able to lend a helping hand to it.

Curious George! (or Curiousu Jiouji {educated guess})

Kels and I were assigned, after a very brief tenure in the children's section, to food serving detail. People come to these festivals expecting to eat, and we cannot dissapoint them! The stand we were put on ended up being the cotton candy and popcorn one, which was just awesome. I don't know about you, but I never really knew how those crazy cotton candy machines worked; who would have thought that I would eventually uncover the secret in Japan of all places? The popcorn machine had less mystery to it, which might explain (or maybe it was the fact that we kept burning the popcorn) how unpopular it was.

Niko and Nico! And an absolutely fabulous dress.

There were two other volunteers at our stall, both Japanese but with enough English to show us the basics of working there. The festival only lasted a few hours, but it was a blast! Our station attracted a large amount of small children (couldn't guess why), who were always adorable, especially when they tried their hand at English.

Kelsey and "Ruby" with the Hirose River in the background.

Me and Shadowfax.

We were also incredibly well-fed while working there. An older Japanese man would pop into our stall every few minutes with a dish of food (or alcohol) for us to try. I probably ate more while working at that festival than I do at most buffets! Not because I am a pig or anything; I just didn't want to be impolite and refuse food. You believe me, right? Right??

A "Fine Pine"

It even comes with accessories!

Brian tries to act uninterested in his own, much fruitier, drink.

There have also been trips to the mall, confusing adventures with the municipal bureaucracy, what seems like two hundred and fifty (but is probably more) bike rides, restaurant going-to's, bar going-to's, interview preparations, job-gettings, house-filling, cutting-my-finger-on-a-stupid-coffee-tin-ings, and a whole host of other little things that will just have to slip through the cracks for now. Maybe they will come up later, but no guarantees!

Hot sauce without "DEATH" displayed prominently on its label have no place in Japan.

There's also a link included here to the entire album for today's post. You might notice that it is a huge one with over 100 photos, and the more Sherlock-like readers might also notice that I seemed to have only shared photos from the first half of the album. That's because there will be a part two to this post, hopefully released in the next few days! I could keep going, of course, but I think there's just too much ground to cover in one post.

Bye for now!

...what?